A typical problem with glass-based and polymer-based materials for use in a wide variety of products such as personal electronics displays, optics, display screens, lenses (for example, intraocular lenses), and the like is that they are highly susceptible to breakage due to impact velocity, torsional strain, compression, bending and the like.
Previous attempts to minimize this breakage have resulted in the advent of crystalline, polymer-based materials. However, the polymers that have been developed to date remain ill-suited for everyday use, as the crystalline structure is susceptible to cracking, fatigue and discoloration. Polymers that remedy this problem are somewhat opaque and do not have a sufficiently high refractive index to provide image clarity to users viewing objects through a display or lens. Accordingly, there still exists a need for novel polymer compositions that are highly flexible and/or have a high refractive index.